Supreme Court should never be Chief Justice centric: CJI BR Gavai

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai on Wednesday said that the Supreme Court should not be Chief Justice-centric but must function as a collegial institution of all judges, reflecting a shared responsibility in the administration of justice.

Addressing a felicitation ceremony organised by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), CJI Gavai emphasised the principle of democratic functioning within the Court and said that the CJI is merely the first among equals.

“I believe the Chief Justice is only the first among equals and the Supreme Court should never be a Chief Justice centric court. It has to be a court of all judges, the members, and therefore I believe in democratic functioning,” Justice Gavai said.

He told the gathering that his fellow judges were united in their approach to issues raised by the Bar and that he has already delegated certain responsibilities to two colleagues.

“I have already entrusted the job to my two colleagues - Justice Narasimha and Justice Chandurkar. I think they have already granted an audience to the members of the Bar Association yesterday,” he said.

The Chief Justice also assured the Bar that their demands would be reviewed constructively, while refraining from making any concrete promises.

“I will not promise you anything but I can only assure that we will look at all the demands in a positive manner and we will always consider that the Bar is an equal stakeholder...We (the bar and the bench) are like two wheels of the golden chariot of the institution of administration of justice,” he said.

He referred to the long-pending issue of allotment of lawyers’ chambers, which he said was resolved within a short time in coordination with Justices Surya Kant and JK Maheshwari.

“As one of us mentioned, myself and Justice Surya Kant and Justice Maheshwari we resolved the issue of the allotment of chambers which was pending for almost five years. It took only two to three meetings for us to come to a logical conclusion,” he said.

Recalling past decisions from his tenure at the Bombay High Court, the Chief Justice said he has always sought to involve the Bar in infrastructural and administrative matters.

“Whenever I got an opportunity, from my period at the Bombay High Court and when I was a member of the building committee, one of the first decisions I had taken was that whenever new buildings are to be constructed, the President and the Secretary of the Bar Association would be part of the committee so that the needs of the members of the Bar and litigants are taken into consideration,” he stated.

He also spoke about his support for granting the Bar access to institutional facilities such as the auditorium.

He said that auditoriums at the Aurangabad and Nagpur benches of the Bombay High Court were made available to the Bar free of charge and that the same treatment has been extended in the Supreme Court as well with the support of one of the previous CJIs.

CJI Gavai also thanked his colleagues and the Bar for their cooperation and said the Court recorded exceptional disposal rate of cases during the partial working days this year.

“I should thank my colleagues for being very cooperative. In the partial working days we have had the highest number of disposals this year during the partial working days in the last so many years. I thank my colleagues, I thank all the members of the Bar,” he said.

SCBA President Vikas Singh also spoke at the function.

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